In this mystery series by Dana Stabenow, the Edgar Award-winning author returns to the Alaskan setting she's famous for, with a wonderful character - state trooper Liam Campbell. Liam's just been transferred from Anchorage to the small fishing village of Newenham, Alaska - where a local pilot seems to have lost his head.

So Sure of Death: Liam Campbell Mysteries Series, Book 2

Three relatively quiet months have passed since Trooper Liam Campbell was assigned to the remote post of Newenham. It all changes when a local fishing boat is discovered scuttled and adrift - its crew of seven dead in circumstances that can't be accidental - and Wy stumbles into a murder scene at an archaeological dig. Cultures collide as the community must deal with too many outside distractions.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Alaska State Trooper Liam Campbell, newly promoted to corporal, is slowly making a home for himself in the remote town of Newenham. Between DUIs and domestic disputes, life is relatively tranquil, until Campbell's girlfriend, bush pilot Wyanet Chouinard, delivers a shipment of mail to a remote post office, where she finds the postmistress murdered. The hunt is on for a killer who seems to have vanished into the Bush... Until another victim is found. Chilling connections from the past make the search a matter of life and death.

PerryMartinBookReviews says:"Love and Murder book 3 in Liam Campbell Series"

Better to Rest: A Liam Campbell Mystery, Book 4

A party of hunters stumbles upon a desiccated human hand, a feisty grandmother meets an untimely death in her own kitchen, and the broken remains of a World War II-era transport plane emerge from the face of a calving glacier. It's all in a day's work for Sergeant Liam Campbell of the Alaska State Troopers. And 60 years ago is like yesterday.

Tell No Lies

The scion of an old-money San Francisco family, Daniel Brasher left his well-paying, respectable money-manager position to marry his community organizer wife and work at a job he loves, leading group counseling sessions with recently paroled violent offenders. One night he finds an envelope - one intended for someone else that was placed in his office mailbox by accident. Inside is an unsigned piece of paper, a handwritten note that says, "Admit what you've done or you will bleed for it."

The Good Thief's Guide to Amsterdam

Charlie Howard travels the globe writing suspense novels for a living. To supplement his income - and keep his hand in - Charlie has a small side business: stealing for a very discreet clientele on commission. When a mysterious American offers Charlie 20,000 euros to steal two small monkey figurines to match the one he already has, Charlie is suspicious; the job seems too good to be true, and of course, it is. He soon finds the American beaten nearly to death, while the third figurine has disappeared.

A Kiss Before Dying

Now a modern classic, as gripping in its tautly plotted action as it is penetrating in its exploration of a criminal mind, it tells the shocking tale of a young man who will stop at nothing--not even murder--to get where he wants to go. For he has dreams; plans. He also has charm, good looks, sex appeal, intelligence. And he has a problem. Her name is Dorothy; she loves him, and she's pregnant. The solution may demand desperate measures.

Pontoon: A Novel of Lake Wobegon

Garrison Keillor's latest book is about the wedding of a girl named Dede Ingebretson, who comes home from California with a guy named Brent. Dede has made a fortune in veterinary aromatherapy; Brent bears a strong resemblance to a man wanted for extortion who's pictured on a poster in the town's post office. Then there's the memorial service for Dede's aunt Evelyn, who led a footloose and adventurous life after the death of her husband 17 years previously.

Tonight I Said Goodbye

Investigator Wayne Weston is found dead of an apparent suicide in his home in an upscale Cleveland suburb, and his wife and six-year-old daughter are missing. Weston’s father insists that private investigators Lincoln Perry and Joe Pritchard take the case to exonerate his son and find his granddaughter and daughter-in-law. As they begin to work, they discover there is much more to the situation than has been described in the prevalent media reports.

A Share in Death

A week's holiday in a luxurious hotel is just what Scotland Yard's Superintendent Duncan Kincaid needs. But his vacation ends dramatically with the discovery of a dead body in the whirlpool bath. Despite a suspicious lack of cooperation from the local constabulary, Kincaid's keen sense of duty won't allow him to ignore the heinous crime, impelling him to send for his enthusiastic young assistant, Sergeant Gemma James. But the stakes are raised significantly when a second murder occurs....

The Maltese Falcon

Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, first serialized in a magazine in 1930, is best known through the iconic Humphrey Bogart film of 1941. But it was the book that created the classic "noir" genre with its tough private detective threading his cool way between the criminals and the law. Sam Spade, the private eye solving the mystery of the Maltese statuette, was the template for Philip Marlowe and a host of others…. but they come no more shrewd and cunning with Hammett peppering the text with one-liners.

Blank Slate

As a cyber-hacker born into a family of thieves, Clarissa O’Connell thinks she’s seen the worst the criminal underworld has to offer - until her brother is arrested and she’s forced into a pact with the notorious crime boss known only as Solomon to free him. For FBI agent Erik Langston, the world is divided into black and white, wrong and right. So he’s made it his life’s mission to hunt down Solomon. When Clarissa’s cyberattacks begin to topple Solomon’s enemies, Erik is hot on her trail, believing her to be the key to bringing down Solomon and his empire.

The Innocent Ones: A Thriller

Assistant District Attorney Beth Crawford and her sister, Jen, take a much needed vacation in Baja California, but the fun in the sun doesn't last long when Jen disappears without a trace on the streets of Playa del Sol. Now Beth must navigate the underbelly of a city she doesn't know, and the only one who can help her is Nick Vargas, a disgraced newspaper reporter on the trail of a dangerous and deadly cult with big plans for its annual celebration...on the Day of the Dead.

The Weight of Silence

It happens quietly one August morning. As dawn's shimmering light drenches the humid Iowa air, two families awaken to find their little girls have gone missing in the night. Now these families are tied by the question of what happened to their children. And the answer is trapped in the silence of unspoken family secrets.

Involuntary Witness: Guido Guerrieri Series, Book 1

A nine-year-old boy is found murdered at the bottom of a well near a popular beach resort in southern Italy. In what looks like a hopeless case for Guido Guerrieri, a Senegalese peddler is accused of the crime. Faced with small-town racism, Guido attempts to exploit the esoteric workings of the Italian courts. The voice of Sean Barrett brings this gritty Italian detective series to life.

600 Hours of Edward

A 39-year-old with Asperger’s syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder, Edward Stanton lives alone on a rigid schedule in the Montana town where he grew up. His carefully constructed routine includes tracking his most common waking time (7:38 a.m.), refusing to start his therapy sessions even a minute before the appointed hour (10:00 a.m.), and watching one episode of the 1960s cop show Dragnet each night (10:00 p.m.). But when a single mother and her nine-year-old son move in across the street, Edward’s timetable comes undone....

The Coroner’s Lunch: The Dr. Siri Investigations, Book 1

Laos, 1975: The Communist Pathet Lao has taken over this former French colony. Dr. Siri Paiboun, a 72-year-old Paris-trained doctor, is appointed national coroner. Although he has no training for the job, there is no one else: the rest of the educated class have fled.

The Wicked Girls

On a fateful summer morning in 1986, two 11-year-old girls meet for the first time. By the end of the day, they will both be charged with murder. Twenty-five years later, journalist Kirsty Lindsay is reporting on a series of sickening attacks on young female tourists in a seaside vacation town when her investigation leads her to interview carnival cleaner Amber Gordon. For Kirsty and Amber, it's the first time they've seen each other since that dark day so many years ago. Now with new, vastly different lives - and unknowing families to protect - will they really be able to keep their wicked secret hidden?

A Cold Day for Murder: A Kate Shugak Mystery

Eighteen months ago, Aleut Kate Shugak quit her job investigating sex crimes for the Anchorage DA’s office and retreated to her father’s homestead in a national park in the interior of Alaska. But the world has a way of beating a path to her door, however remote. In the middle of one of the bitterest Decembers in recent memory ex-boss — and ex-lover — Jack Morgan shows up with an FBI agent in tow.

44 Scotland Street

The brilliant Alexander McCall Smith became an international sensation with his New York Times best-selling No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency novels. His award-winning wit, made famous through that series, is fully on display in 44 Scotland Street.

William "Wild Bill" Guarnere and Edward "Babe" Heffron were among the first paratroopers of the U.S. Army - members of an elite unit of the 101st Airborne Division called Easy Company. Arguably the bravest, most efficient, physically fit, and tight-knit group of soldiers the Army has ever produced, the unit was called upon for every high-risk operation of the war, including D-Day, Operation Market Garden in Holland, the Battle of the Bulge, and the capture of Hitler's Eagle's Nest in Berchtesgaden.

Tears of the Jaguar: A Novel

When a sudden rainstorm disrupts an archeological dig at a remote Mayan site, site supervisor Deborah Miller makes an astonishing discovery: a collection of rubies so precious that generations of men have died - and killed - to possess them. Some believe the jewels harbor occult power; others believe they are the key to the arms race; still others see merely their potential for profit. But Deborah doesn’t want power or money - she only wants the truth.

MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors

Before the movie, this is the novel that gave life to Hawkeye Pierce, Trapper John, Hot Lips Houlihan, Frank Burns, Radar O'Reilly, and the rest of the gang that made the 4077th MASH like no other place in Korea or on earth. The doctors who worked in the Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals (MASH) during the Korean War were well trained but, like most soldiers sent to fight a war, too young for the job. In the words of the author, "a few flipped their lids, but most of them just raised hell, in a variety of ways and degrees."

A Darker Shade of Sweden

Ever since Stieg Larsson shone a light on the brilliance of Swedish crime writing with his acclaimed and best-selling Millennium trilogy, listeners around the world have sought out and devoured the crime fiction of his countrymen (and women), many of whom have proved to be some of the greatest masters of the genre. In this landmark and unique publication, Sweden's most distinguished and best-loved crime writers have contributed stories to an anthology that promises to thrill even the most jaded mystery listener.

Claire DeWitt and the City of the Dead

Claire DeWitt is not your average private investigator. She has brilliant skills of deduction and is an ace at discovering evidence. But Claire also uses her dreams, omens, and mind-expanding herbs to help her solve mysteries, and relies on Détection—the only book published by the great and mysterious French detective Jacques Silette before his death.

Publisher's Summary

In this mystery series by Dana Stabenow, the Edgar Award-winning author returns to the Alaskan setting she's famous for, with a wonderful character - state trooper Liam Campbell. Liam's just been transferred from Anchorage to the small fishing village of Newenham, Alaska - where a local pilot seems to have lost his head.

Why pay $3.95 for this "Book Du Jour" when the kindle edition is $0.00 and after you "purchase" that book the Audible audiobook is $1.99. Obviously this is not a review but I didn't know where else to post.

I downloaded the “Fire and Ice” the first book in Dana Stabenow’s Liam Campbell series, to help bridge the gap while I wait for the Brilliance Audio version of “Killing Grounds”, book 8 in the series Kate Shugak series, to come out in January 2014 to get another slice of Alaskan life.

What I got was something quite different from the Kate Shugak series, even down to the writing style but something that gave me another view on what Alaska can mean to people.Liam Campbell is a newly-demoted State Trooper, who steps off the plane at the remote town he has been exiled to, and steps into a storm of violence, eccentricity, lust and death.

The story is well-plotted, seasoned with humor and chaos, stuffed with larger-than-life characters that we know will be in all the future books and it gives a vivid view of what it feels like to take on the potentially lethal task of “herring spotting” from a light plane in an overcrowded sky.

Stabenow’s books are never just about finding out who killed whom. They are an exploration of why people live the way they do and what it is about Alaska that drives particular behaviors.

In this book Alaska is being shown as a place where people go to make a new start. It’s also shown as place with all the usual problems of violence against women, alcohol addiction, child abuse and the pressures of a small town to make you behave “appropriately”.

I couldn’t quite bring myself to like Liam Campbell, the man with a tragic past and a grief-filled present. Then I realized that this was what Stabenow intended. I couldn’t like Liam because he doesn’t like himself. His distaste for himself at first appears to be a reaction to things he couldn’t control but feels accountable for: death’s on his watch, a tragedy in his family; things that would damage any man. As the book progresses we realize that the fundamental source of internal disgust is that he is a man who has betrayed himself and everyone he loves and he can’t forgive himself for that. The problem was, I couldn’t forgive him for it either.

There are some signs that Liam is on a journey of redemption. In future books, I hope to see something about him that will make me care. I’d like to see his self-pity and self-absorption replaced by some passion for making a difference by actually doing his job. Perhaps the reason Stabenow keeps Campbell out of his uniform for most of the book, is to signal his failure to engage and to become who he should be.

The sex scene at the beginning of the book caught me by surprise. It is graphic without being gratuitous but it goes way beyond anything you’d find in a Kate Shugak novel. The scene is actually well written – it describes arousal without being arousing. It is necessary because the sexual attraction between Campbell and the Wy is central to how Liam came to be where he is. I like the fact that Stabenow sets this up so that we understand that lust does not explain or excuse Liam’s actions any more than alcohol explains why someone is a drunk.

I enjoy Marguerite Gavin as the narrator of the Kate Shugak series. I wish someone else had been chosen to read the Liam Campbell series. I think a male reader would have been more appropriate and would have made a clearer separation between Liam and Kate. She didn’t distract me from the book, but she didn’t add to it either.

I am a voracious reader (average about 4-5 Audible books a week, in addition to those I "eyeball".) I have been hooked on recorded books since the time of cassettes/CDs and was thrilled when I became an Audible member in 2007. I find reader reviews good guides to spending my credits, so have finally decided to write a few (although, I would rather be reading!)

Great first book in a new series by Stabenow, best known for her Kate Shugak series set in Alaska. This series is also set in Alaska, following Liam Campbell, who has just been demoted from Sergeant to Trooper and reassigned to the Alaskan Bush. We are familiarized with his past through remembrances as the story progresses, which can be a bit confusing if you don't pay close attention, but is a good way to keep the plot moving while still providing the backstory. I was surprised at how much I liked this book, as I was afraid I would continually compare it (unfavorably) to the Shugak series. Stabenow introduces characters I look forward to learning more about in later books. I was enveloped from the beginning, with Campbell observing all his fellow air travelers, assigning them nicknames (moccasin man, old fart, the flirt) and predicting what future crimes they might commit.

Like "Dead in the Water" of the Shugak series, I learned something of Alaskan industry (in this case, herring fishing and aerial spotting, whereas it was crab fishing in "Dead in the Water.") This was an extra bonus to the book. As with the Shugak series, the Alaska setting only enhances my enjoyment of the volume.

Highly recommend this novel for any fans of mystery.

Gavin, as usual, delivers an excellent performance. A female narrator may seem an odd choice for a book with a male protagonist, but Gavin has proven to be THE voice of Stabenow's Alaska, and does not let her listeners down here.

I seriously had no interest in finishing the book. I usually make myself finish, but I just couldn't. The main character is a man and the woman does a poor job trying to sound like a man....for some reason this really bugged me...sorry.

Has Fire and Ice: A Liam Campbell Mystery turned you off from other books in this genre?

Yep - will never purchase another

How could the performance have been better?

Different reader

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

I truly enjoyed this story. I listened to it after I listened to the first book in the Kate Shugak series. I loved the well developed characters and plot. The story started out fast and kept that pace throughout the book. I was happy that I was able to take this book everywhere. I bought the next book before I finished the first.

I did not realize this was not a Kate Shugak story when I bought it. I had some trouble getting into this one, as I did not find the character of Liam engaging. I will pay more attention now that I know the author has another character in the mix.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Honestly, I don't recall finishing it. If I did, I was not sufficiently impressed to recall.

Which character – as performed by Marguerite Gavin – was your favorite?

Again, I do not recall the specifics, but I DO like Marguerite Gavin's performances. It took a while to get used to her, as sometimes the inflexions seem out of character or inappropriate, but her depictions of the Alaskan natives, and their mannerisms is spot on!

Any additional comments?

I am not saying it was a bad book or story, or that you should NOT take it on. For me, this character simply cannot compete w/ Kate Sugak, which is what I was expecting. Some readers/listeners may prefer Liam to Kate. It just depends on the listener.

Ms. Stabenow is a wonderful writer. Her knowledge of Alaska is from her own perspective, having lived there all her life. And she uses that knowledge exceptionally well. Admittedly, I am not as crazy about the Liam books as I am about her Kate Shugak mysteries, but that is a personal preference which has nothing to do with whether the Liam books are good. They are very very good. This is the first in the Liam series, and I highly recommend you read all of them. I have, and they are right up there on my all time favorites list.

The characters in all of Ms. Stabenow’s works are quirky, to say the least. They are the kind of people you would expect in a dangerous land like the wilds of Alaska – strong, determined, and sometimes weird beyond measure! Another thing I really like about the book is the fact that her heros and heroines are in no way perfect. Liam is a recovering alcoholic, riddled with self doubt and wanting badly to turn his life around. Moving from the “big city” of Anchorage to a small fishing village, Liam is immediately drawn in to the weirdness of an Alaska fishing village – the odd ducks, alcoholics, and various and sundry detritus of society who are more comfortable in the wilds than in civilization. And nobody writes these characters better than Dana.

The story grabs you from the first and doesn’t let go. Overall, Highly recommended. Then go buy all her other books too – they are well worth the read!

Well, I thought I was buying a crime novel ... I have had to give up on this for several reasons:I absolutely hated the voice of the narrator - though by 3/4 of the way through side one I managed to get used to the strange raspy voice.I started to think that I had stumbled into the Mills and Boon directory in error, the intimate sex scenes were totally unnecessary, were far too detailed and too long, I started to feel like a voyeur. There seemed no point to the inclusion of these scenes, and I really didn't want to know what she did with her mouth - nor what he did with his. Some things are private!The book still hasn't gone through any investigation about 'the incident', and I am on side two.

I really cannot give up any more of my time to this non- story. I just don't care any more! The characters don't interest me, the plot is non existent, and I am getting more and more irritated by its lack of direction.

How has it got so many 5* reviews?

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

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